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Major General Hancock 



GETTYSBURG, MAY 29, 1886. 



.'.;(,-, 



MAJOR-GENERAL 

WiNFiELD Scott Hancock 



ORATION 



AT THE 



NATIONAL CEMETERY, GETTYSBURG 

MAY 29 1886 



BY 



WILLIAM H. LAMBERT 

ii 



PHILADELPHIA 
1886 



♦ /■"? >^ ^ '^ 



125 COPIES PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION'. 



H. c. I'ENNypacki:r. 

PRINT, 

>oi8 CHESTNUT STREET. 

PHILAD'ELI'HIA. 



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rT7HE original purpose of Memorial Day w as to 
^J^fe commemorate the defenders of our countr\- 
who died during the War of the Rebellion. 

But custom has widened the scope of our cere- 
monies, and we now commemorate our dead com- 
rades whether they died during the war or since 
its close. 

When I accepted your courteous invitation to 
address you on this occasion it was my purpose 
to take as my theme the great cause which im- 
pelled our comrades and ourselves to obe\' the 
Nation's call ; but the recent death of the _i^rt;at 
soldier whose fame is inseparably associated with 
the battle here fought, and who upon his last 
visit to this field — but short six months ago — was 
the honored and grateful recipient of your heartv 
welcome, suggested to me that under the circum- 
stances I could have for this occasion no theme 
more appropriate, none more acceptable to your- 
selves than W infield Scott Hancock. 



Not that in making him my theme I forget 
those other great soldiers who since our last 
Memorial Day have gone from our midst ; whose 
names are imperishably written in our history — 
respectively the first and the last of the generals who 
in the war commanded all the armies ; each in his 
day the most trusted of our leaders ; each the centre 
of the Nation's hope ; each unselfishly giving his best 
to the cause ; each having part in the final triumph, 
for though in the fortunes of the war the first held 
no command at its close, the great army that gave 
the last blow to the rebellion was the army he 
had formed and led, and that through all its vicis- 
situdes bore the impress of his genius, and never 
forgot how devotedly it had followed him. 

Well might the eulogy of the first commander 
of the Army of the Potomac be pronounced here 
where its greatest battle was fought ; and alike 
well might his praises here be spoken, who, in 
those July days, when these hills were trembling 
beneath the awful shock, was thundering against 
the rebellion's western strono^hold, and who^ on 
the Independence day when the Nation was rejoic- 
ing over the victory that had here been won, joined 
Vicksburg to Gettysburg in the thanksgivings of 
a grateful people. Well might we here eulogize 
him under whose command the army that had here 



fought, conjoined with the other armies of the 
Union, crushed the Confederacy. 

Nor do I forget that the object of this day is the 
commemoration of all who gave their lives for the 
Nation or who, having faithfully served in the war 
and survived its perils, have since fallen ; that to- 
day we decorate the graves of all our comrades 
whatever the rank and station of their lives, re- 
membering in the tribute we render each the 
sacrifice he offered, the cause that impelled it, 
the flag he followed. Wherever else I might forget 
the purpose of Memorial Day, looking upon these 
graves honored alike, though so many entomb the 
unknown dead, I cannot forget it here, where the 
glory of each is not the rank he bore but the field 
on which, the cause for which, he died ; here 
where the immortal words were spoken that enshrine 
forever the memory of the people who died for 
the people's cause. 

Yet however fitting it would be here and now 
to recount the achievements of McClellan and 
Grant, their fame is directly associated with 
other fields ; and though Gettysburg was neither 
the first nor the last field on which Hancock dis- 
tinguished himself and served his country, it was 
here that his soldierly qualities were most con- 
spicuous, that his services were of supremest worth. 



And though I tell of the general, the recital 
of his service involves tribute to the men who 
made that service possible. 

So briefly as I can I shall speak of his splendid 
career, not indeed hoping to add aught to its 
lustre, or to portray adequately the character w^hich 
made the career possible, or to depict fittingly the 
events that gave the character its opportunity, but 
only to discharge the duty I feel incumbent upon 
me as the speaker on this first memorial service at 
Gettysburg since his death. 

The military career of General Hancock which 
ended with his death, began July i, 1840, when at 
the age of sixteen he entered the Military Acad- 
emy at West Point. He was graduated with his 
class in 1844 and assigned as brevet second lieu- 
tenant to the Sixth Infantry, stationed in the Indian 
Territory, our then southwestern frontier ; he 
attained the full grade in June, 1846; in 1847, 
having been detached upon recruiting service, he 
accompanied the troops re-enforcing General Scott 
at Puebla, Mexico, where Hancock rejoined his 
rei^iment. Durinj^ the war with Mexico he took 
part in several minor actions and was engaged in 
the battles of Churubusco and Molino del Rey, 
being honorably mentioned in the official reports 
of both engagements and brevetted first lieu- 



tenant for gallant and meritorious conduct in 
the former. 

The Sixth Infantry remained in Mexico until 
after the ratification of the treaty of peace with 
that country, when, our troops being withdrawn, 
the regiment was assigned to the Western Division. 
Lieutenant Hancock having been appointed quar- 
termaster in June, 1848, served as such until Oc- 
tober, 1849, when he was made adjutant, fulfill- 
ing the duties of that position until June, 1855, 
when he was appointed assistant adjutant-general 
of the Department of the West, having in the 
meantime, January, 1853, been commissioned first 
lieutenant. In November, 1855, he was ap- 
pointed captain and assistant quartermaster, but 
did not vacate his regimental commission until 
June, i860. His first station as quartermaster was 
at Fort Myers, Florida, during the hostilities against 
the Seminoles ; he remained in Florida until the 
summer of 1857, when he was ordered to duty 
with troops engaged in suppression of disturb- 
ances in Kansas. In May. 1858, he accompanied 
General Harney in his expedition to Utah, and in 
the following July rejoined the Sixth Infantry at 
Fort Bridger and accompanied it thence in its 
overland march to Benicia, California, discharging 
the duties of regimental quartermaster. Soon 



after reaching the Pacific coast Captain Hancock 
came east on leave of absence, and upon its ex- 
piration returned to California; in May, 1859. he 
was appointed chief quartermaster of the Southern 
District of that State with headquarters at Los 
Angeles. 

In August, 1 86 1, in consonance with his 
-earnest desire and in compliance with his own 
request, he was relieved from duty on the Pacific 
coast and ordered to Washington. Upon his 
•arrival there he was appointed chief quartermaster 
upon the staff of General Robert Anderson, who 
had been assigned to the command of the newly 
formed Department of the Cumberland. Such an 
appointment was in accordance with the line of 
Hancock's previous service ; twelve of the seven- 
teen years since he left West Point had been spent 
in regimental and general staff duty, one half of 
that time in connection with the quartermaster's 
department, and he had so discharged these duties 
as to merit and receive the commendation of his 
superior officers. The value of efficient adminis- 
tration of the quartermaster's department was so 
fully established during the War of the Rebellion 
that there can be no question that Hancock would 
have rendered great service to the country had he 
assumed the duties of the staff position to which 



he had been ordered, but remembering what he 
did in the position he eventually filled, considering 
what might have bsen had he been elsewhere 
than here in July, 1863, our assurance that he 
would have brilliantly administered the duties of 
an important staff office can not lessen our 
satisfaction that he was destined to command 
troops. 

Commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers 
September 23, 1861, he was assigned to the com 
mand of a brigade in General VVilllam E. Smith's 
division which, in the organization of the army 
corps, in March, 1862, was attached to the Fourth 
Corp:;, under General Keyes, but subsequently 
upon the formation of the Sixth Corps, under Gene- 
ral Franklin, was transferred to that command. 
The months which intervened between Hancock's 
assignment to the Army of the Potomac and the 
movement of that army to the Peninsula were 
devoted to the drill and discipline of his command, 
and however vigorous the discipline, however 
needlessly strict Its enforcement may have seemed 
at the time, his men were soon by their efficiency 
to demonstrate the importance and value of the 
training to which they had been subjected. When, 
in the spring of 1S62, the Army of the Potomac 
left its encampments about Washington, none of 



Its organizations had been more thoroughly pre- 
pared for the duties and dangers awaiting it than 
Hancock's brio-ade. 

In the skirmishes and reconnoissances in which 
Hancock took part on the Peninsula, he showed 
the same care and attention to details that charac- 
terized his conduct of later and larger operations. 
His first important encounter with the enemy was 
on May 5 th, when, after the evacuation of York- 
town, the Confederates, being closely pressed by 
our advance, made their determined stand before 
Williamsburg. Whilst Hooker and Kearney were 
heavily engaged on our left, Hancock with five 
regiments of infantry and a battery, a second bat- 
tery subsequently joining him, was sent to the right 
and gained a position which enabled him to harass 
the enemy in his main works and to threaten his 
communications with Williamsburg, Discovering 
the danger the Confederate commander, D. H. 
Hill, sent Early's brigade to dislodge Hancock, 
who, in the absence of re-enforcements that he had 
repeatedly asked, and in obedience to the orders of 
General Sumner, commanding our troops on the 
field, was obliged to quit his advanced position. 
Withdrawing his troops slowly and in good order, 
he formed his line on a crest in rear and 
awaited attack ; emboldened, by his retirement the 



rebels came forward confidently, but on arriving 
within thirty paces were checked by the musketry 
fire of Hancock's line, and before they could re- 
cover from their surprise were driven from 
the slope by the bayonet charge which immediately 
followed. Unable for lack of troops to maintain 
his communications and at the same time pursue the 
retreating enemy, Hancock halted his line at the 
foot of the slope, and opening fire drove the 
rebels beyond musketry range. The enemy's loss 
was so severe that he made no attempt to renew the 
attack, and our troops retained possession of the 
field, compelling the abandonment of Williams- 
burg during the night, because Hancock's position 
made the severance of the enemy's communication 
with his main army inevitable had he remained 
until the next morning. 

Although in numbers engaged and in immediate 
results Williamsburg is of minor importance, it is 
memorable as the first of the long series of 
battles fought by the Army of the Potomac. 
And in the career of General Hancock this battle 
is specially noteworthy because his conduct in it 
first brought his name into the prominence that 
it maintained through his life. 

General McClellan, who had been superintending 
the embarkation of troops at Yorktown, came upon 



lO 

the field at nightfall in time to witness Hancock's 
charge, which in his official despatch he charac- 
terized as "brilliant in the extreme," and on the 
following day, In a personal message to Mrs. 
McClellan, he said, " The battle of Williamsburg 
has proved a brilliant victory. We have the 
enemy's strong works, the town, and all sick and 
wounded of the enemy. * * * Hancock was 
superb yesterday. * * * " 

During the Seven Days Hancock was engaged 
in the action at Garnet's and Goldlng's Farms, 
in the battle of Savage Station and at the crossing 
of White Oak Swamp, his brigade being in 
the rear guard of the army during the greater 
part of the movement from the Chlckahomlny 
to the James. 

Returning with the Army of the Potomac to 
Washington, he accompanied it when it left the de- 
fences of the capital for the campaign in Maryland, 
and took part in the operations at the South Moun- 
tain Gaps. His coming upon the field of Antletam 
was most opportune, arriving just as Sedgwick's at- 
tack had been repulsed, Hancock's brigade was at 
once put upon the front line in support of two of 
Sumner's batteries that were threatened by the 
enemy ; driving back the rebel skirmishers he 
silenced the batteries that had been planted in his 



1 1 

front. General Smith in a recent address said 
that Hancock's arrival "on the field, with his brig- 
ade closed in mass, and the change of front, deploy- 
ment and advance of the brigade was like a trans- 
formation scene." Early in the afternoon Hancock 
was directed by General McClellan to take com- 
mand of the first division Second Corps, whose com- 
mander, General Richardson, had been mortally 
wounded. He found the division in proximity to 
the enemy, and suffering severely from his guns and 
sharpshooters, but Hancock succeeded in relieving 
the pressure upon his troops, and maintained his 
line until the close of the battle. 

On the 29th of November, 1862, he was com- 
missioned Major-General of Volunteers. 

Fredericksburg is probably the battle of the Army 
of the Potomac whose memory we least delight to 
recall, and yet in none of its battles was the char- 
acter of the army more clearly manifested than on 
that dark December day when its divisions were 
flung against the impregnable defences of Marye's 
Heights. 

Elated by their great victories upon the 
Rappahannock, confident that they could repeat 
in Pennsylvania the successes won in Virginia, with 
unquestioning faith in their leader, the Confederate 
soldiers formed in yonder woods, screened from 



12' 

view, of their adversary, unmolested by his guns,, 
and after a furious combat of artillery in which the 
advantage appeared to rest with them — the oppos- 
ing guns having seemingly been silenced — advanced 
in battle line over yonder plain to assail the Army 
of the Potomac behind its rude defences ; the 
audacity of the movement, the vigor of its execu^ 
tion, the persistent gallantry of the advance made 
Longstreet's assault at Gettysburg seem the very 
climax of valor. 

Forming in the streets of Fredericksburg, swept 
by the enemy's fire, moving by the flank through 
the town, crossing the intervening canal upon un- 
floored bridges, still by the flank moving parallel 
to his entrenchments to allow the several brigades 
to deploy, always under fire, except as each brigade 
effecting its deployment gained momentary shelter 
ere advancing to assault heights naturally formidable, 
made stronger during the weeks of the enemy's occu- 
pancy, under a new leader the Army of the 
Potomac, hopeless of success but inspired by duty, 
went forward to defeat and death. 

Not for a moment would I detract from the glory of 
Pickett's charge, but I hold that the war afforded no 
sublimer instance of devoted courage than the 
assault on Marye's Heights. In that assault no troops 
displayed greater gallantry, none died nearer the 



13 

fatal heights, none suffered greater loss than those 
that Hancock led. Of the five thousand men who 
followed him into fire at Fredericksburg two thou- 
sand fell upon that awful field. 

At Chancellorsville, that battle of brilliant con- 
ception and of most unfortunate execution, of offen- 
sive plan, but defensive conduct, Hancock was con- 
spicuous for the intrepidity with which he with- 
stood the attacks upon his line, and the tenacity with 
which he held the several positions assigned him, 
quitting none save in obedience to orders. Con- 
stituting the rear guard of the army in its with- 
drawal from the Chancellor House, his were the 
last troops to confront the enemy, and though 
obliged by the retirement of the forces upon his 
flank to form his men in two lines — back to back, 
and to fight on each front, he held his ground, 
receding only when the retirement of the army to 
its new position had been accomplished, and he 
carried with him all his artillery, though obliged to 
withdraw one of his batteries by the hands of his 
infantry — horses and gunners having been killed. 

On the loth of June, 1863, General Hancock 
assumed command of the Second Corps, being 
permanently assigned by the order of the Presi- 
dent on the 29th of that month, on the day 
following General Meade's appointment to com- 



M 

mand the Army of the Potomac now en route 
to Pennsylvania. In camp, march and battle 
Hancock had proven his ability for the commands 
he had held ; by tests of like kind, greater in 
degree, he was to demonstrate his fitness for the 
command he had now attained. 

When, on the first of July, at Taney town, 
Meade learned that General Reynolds had been 
killed, he ordered Hancock to the front to as- 
sume command of the three corps constituting 
the left wing of the army, and directed him to 
examine the position, stating that if he so advised 
the troops would be sent forward. 

His assignment to this important duty, involving 
as it did his assumption of command of corps 
whose commanders were his seniors in commission, 
was an exercise of authority on the part of General 
Meade justified by the emergency and his knowl- 
edofe of Hancock. 

Temporarily relinquishing command of his own 
corps, General Hancock, unaccompanied, except 
by his staff, rapidly rode to the front, thirteen 
miles distant, and immediately upon his arrival on 
Cemetery Hill, about 3.30 p. m., assumed com- 
mand of the troops upon the field and there 
assembling. 

Ordering the Eleventh Corps to be pushed for- 



15 

ward to the field in its then front, extending the 
Hne of the F"irst Corps along Cemetery Ridge to 
the left, sending Wadsworth's division of that corps 
to occupy Culp's Hill, on our right, until the:i 
unoccupied ; directing Geary, whose division of the 
Twelfth Corps had come upon the field soon after 
Hancock, to take possession of the high ground 
on the further left towards Round Top. his dispo- 
sition of the troops, his occupation of the vantage 
points checked the advance of the enemy, who. 
beholding his determined front, concluded that our 
troops had been strongly re-enforced, and that the 
army was close at hand. Within half an hour 
after his arrival he sent an aide to report to Gene- 
ral Meade the condition of affairs, that Cemetery 
Hill could be held until nightfall, and that General 
Hancock considered Gettysburg the place to fight 
the coming battle. Soon after he sent a written 
communication giving further details and stating 
that the position was very strong "having for its 
disadvantage that it might easily be turned, leaving 
to" General Meade "the responsibility whether 
the battle should be fought there or at Pipe 
Creek." Upon receipt of the first report Meade 
determined to fight at Gettysburg, and immedi- 
ately issued the order in obedience to which the 
army concentrated here. 



i6 

The fighting for the day having ceased and 
there being no probabiHty of its renewal, Hancock 
transferred the command to General Slocum and 
returned to the headquarters of the army. 

General Hancock rejoined his corps early on the 
morning of the 2d, and placed it on Cemetery Ridge 
with its right upon the Taneytown road, its left con- 
necting with the Third Corps in the direction of 
Round Top. In the afternoon, in compliance with 
orders, he sent his first division, under Caldwell, to 
the assistance of Sickles, who having advanced from 
the position assigned him, had become heavily en- 
gaged on our left. The movement of the Third Corps 
and the consequent detachment of Caldwell caused 
a large gap upon Hancock's left, compelling the 
utmost vigilance to prevent the enemy availing 
himself of the opportunity so afforded to penetrate 
our lines. 

Sickles having been wounded, Hancock was 
directed to assume command of the Third Corps 
in addition to his own, the increased responsibility 
demanding yet greater exertion to close the inter- 
vals that existed even after the Third Corps — ■ 
shattered by its gallant fight — had retired to, the 
line it was originally intended to occupy, and the 
two divisions of the First Corps sent in response to 
his request had come upon the line and assisted in 



17 

its re-establishment. The vigorous assaults upon 
the different portions of his enhanced command 
required his constant presence upon his line ; know- 
ing its weak points, quick to detect the approach 
of the eneniy in his efforts to possess them, Han- 
cock sent or led brigades or single regiments, as 
the case demanded, to the exposed positions to 
repel attack, or to cover the withdrawal of over- 
tasked troops. Hearing heavy firing upon the 
front of the Eleventh Corps he ordered Carroll's 
brigade of his own corps to be sent to Howard's 
assistance, a re-enforcement both welcome and 
timely, that had no small share in repulsing the 
attack upon the East Cemetery Hill, where the 
brigade remained until the close of the battle. The 
sound of firing still farther to the right led Han- 
cock to direct two regiments of the Second Corps 
to the assistance of Slocum. When, at last, night 
closed and the fighting ended, the ground occupied 
by Hancock's command now comprising his own 
— Caldwell having returned after dark — and the 
Third Corps and Doubleday's and Robinson's divis- 
ions of the First Corps, was substantially that 
Which he had designated on the previous evening, 
and extended from the Cemetery Hill to the slopes 
of Little- Round Top. 

At daybreak on the third, cannonading upon 



iS 

our extreme right announced the reopening of the 
conflict ; but, excepting artillery engagements and 
firing of the skirmishers, there was no movement 
upon Hancock's front during the morning. And 
after the enemy's dislodgement from Gulp's Hill, 
about eleven, absolute silence prevailed over the 
entire field until half-past one, when two guns upon 
Seminary Ridge signaled the most terrific artillery 
conflict that has ever shaken the continent. For 
nearly two hours from one hundred and forty guns 
the Confederates poured a converging fire upon 
our centre, eighty of our guns responding. 

None needed to ask the portent of this awful 
storm. The direction of the enemy's fire foretold 
the objective point of the assault that all knew 
must follow. Subjected to that most trying ordeal 
of battle — endurance of attack to which they could 
make no resistance — our men, availing themselves 
of such shelter as they might find without quitting 
their lines, waited and watched for the lull in the 
storm. Whilst the tempest was at Its height, the 
sun obscur(^d by sulphurous smoke, the air alive 
with shot and bursting shell, the earth quivering 
beneath incessant explosions, Hancock rode his 
line. 

To assure himself that his men were ready for 
the coming assault, accompanied by his staff, his 



19 

corps flag- borne after him, he rocle the length of 
his command, stopping here and there to warn of 
the impending blow, and to encourage determined 
resistance. 

He had reached the left of his command and 
M^as returning to the right, when the cessation of 
the artillery indicated that the attack of which the 
cannonade had been but the prelude, was to be 
made. When the smoke lifted, fifteen thousand 
Confederate infantry were seen advancing from 
Seminary Ridge. The enemy's line had traversed 
nearly half the Intervening space when it en- 
countered the fire of our batteries, but undismayed, 
steadily pressed on. Coming within closer range, 
our musketry fire told heavily and drove back 
many of the troops upon the rebel left, but although 
great gaps were made in the ranks of the assail- 
ants, the central division still came forward. Quick- 
ening step as it came yet nearer, that splendid 
division impetuously threw itself upon our line 
and momentarily penetrated the advanced line, of 
Webb's brigade ; but, despite the gallantry and per- 
slstance of the onset, Pickett's charge was repulsed. 

During the progress of the assault Hancock was 
with the troops In the very front of the battle, and 
whilst directing the movement against the flank of 
the enemy's attacking line was unhorsed by a bul- 



20 

let-wound In the thigh. This wound, which was of 
such serious character as t6 disable him for several 
months, compelled his removal from the field, but 
hot until he had witnessed the ' repulse of the 
enemy that practically ended the battle of Gettys- 
burg. 

Longstreet's assault, the culminating effort of the 
Confederates, had been directed against Hancock's 
Command, its main force against his own corps, and 
he had the proud satisfaction of reporting to General 
Meade : "The troops of my command have repulsed 
the enemy's' assaults. We have gained a great 
victory." Reluctant to quit the field, and as if 
apologizing for the necessity that compelled him, he 
dictated another message in which he stated: ''I 
have been severely, but I trust not seriously wounded. 
I did not leave the field so long as there was a rebel 
seen upright." 

On the 30th of November, 1863, he was pro- 
moted in the regular army, major and quarter- 
master. 

General Hancock resumed command of the Second 
Corps in December, 1863, but shortly after relin-. 
quished it for a time, in compliance with the wishes of 
^ the Washington authorities, and visited several of 
the larger northern cities to stimulate enlistments 
for his corps. 



21 



Returning to the army in March, 1864, he again 
took command of the corps, which was enlarged by 
the addition of two divisions of the Third Corps 
that had basn discontinued in the reorganization of 
the army under General Grant. 

In Grant's campaign from the Rapidan to 
Petersburg and the defences of Richmond, Hancock 
had large and important part. Engaged in all of its 
great battles, conducting many of its principal oper- 
ations, in most of its movements leading the advance, 
frequently commanding large bodies of troops addi- 
tional to his own corps, his history and that of the 
campaign are one. Executing all his orders with 
vigor, inspiring his men with his own persistence, he 
led them again and again to assault entrenched lines 
where assault seemed futile ; achieving brilliant suc- 
cess where failure seemed inevitable ; failing only 
where success was utterly impossible ; unspoiled by 
success, undaunted by failure, undismayed by diffi- 
culty, the rnxost brilliant pages of that history are 
recording the deeds of Hancock and the Second 
Corps. 

The bare recital of the principal actions in which 
he was engaged— Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North 
Anna, Totopotomoy, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, 
Deep Bottom, Ream's Station, BoydtonRoad — sug- 
gests how great was his part In the tremendous cam- 



22 

paign, whilst to state the losses of the Second Corps 
in the six months embracing those battles — exceed- 
inof fifteen thousand men killed and wounded — is to 
tell how costly was each advance, how determined 
each attack, how desperate every resistance. 

During this campaign, although he still suffered 
from the wound received at Gettysburg, he was con- 
tinuously on duty except during ten days in June, 
when he was completely disabled, but did not leave 
the front. 

General Grant in his recently published Me- 
moirs thus characterizes General Hancock: 

"Hancock stands the most conspicuous figure 
of all the general officers who did not exercise 
a separate command. He commanded a corps 
longer than any other one and his name was never 
mentioned as having committed in battle a blunder 
for which he was responsible. His personal cour- 
age and his presence with his command in the 
thickest of the fight won for him the confidence of 
troops serving under him. No matter how hard 
the fight, the Second Corps always felt that their 
commander was looking after them." 

On the 1 2 th of August, 1864, General Hancock 
was appointed brigadier general United States 
Army "for gallant and distinguished services in the 
battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold 



Harbor, and in all the operations of the army in 
Virginia under Lieutenant-General Grant." 

In November, 1864, in accordance with the 
wishes of the War Department, he was reHeved 
from duty with the Army of the Potomac and 
authorized to recruit from the men whose terms o 
enHstment had expired, an organization to be known 
as the First Veteran Corps; he entered heartily into 
the work, and had secured some ten thousand men, 
when the renewal of active operations in Virginia 
made him desirous to return to the front ; but instead 
of being reassigned to the Second Corps he was 
appointed to command the Middle Military Divi- 
sion, including the Army of the Shenandoah, with 
headquarters at Winchester. He retained this 
command until the close of the war, headquarters 
being transferred to Washington in April, 1865. 

In March, 1865. he was brevetted major-general 
United States Army, "for gallant and meritorious 
services in the battle of Spottsylvania. Va." 

The military division was discontinued in July. 
and General Hancock was assigned to the Middle 
Military Department, subsesquently being transfer- 
red successively to the Department of Missouri, the 
Fifth Military District — embracing the States of 
Louisiana and Texas— the Military Division of the 
Atlantic, the Department of Dakota, and again, fin- 



24 

ally, to the Military Division of the Atlantic, with 
headquarters at Governor's Island, New York. 

He was promoted to be major-general, United 
States Army, July 26, 1866. 

Excepting the operations against the Indians 
whilst he commanded the Department of Missouri 
and the duties resulting from his command in 
Louisiana and Texas during the reconstruction 
period, and the precautionary movement of troops 
during the Railroad Riots of 1877, General Han- 
cock's services subsequent to the War of the 
Rebellion were principally those pertaining to the 
administrative routine of military departments in 
time of peace. 

His last conspicuous service was the arrange- 
ment and conduct of the funeral ceremonies of 
General Grant, a duty whose varied details and 
large responsibilities required the greatest patience 
and discretion, and that was discharged with the 
utmost fidelity and with dignity befitting the 
National character of the obsequies. General 
Hancock's last appearance in uniform at the head 
of troops was on this occasion. 

None who on that day beheld his martial bear- 
ing, his noble person — splendid yet despite the 
changes wrought by time and keenest private 
sorrow — apprehended that he so soon would go 



25 

"the way of all the earth." His death was so 
unexpected save by those immediately about him 
that its announcement, by its suddenness and by 
its sadness doubly shocked the Nation. 

With simpHcity of ceremony, in striking contrast 
with the solemn pageantry he had so recently 
directed, in the modest burial-place of an inland 
town, within the shadow of his boyhood's home, far 
removed from the scenes of his manhood's career, 
all that was mortal of this great soldier was com- 
mitted to the tomb. 

Subordinate in rank and command to Grant and 
McClellan, lacking equal opportunity to prove his 
fitness for duties even higher than those he had 
so well discharged ; in purity of character, in sin- 
gleness of purpose, in devotion to his country's 
cause he was subordinate neither to them nor to 
any that followed the country's flag. 

No lofty column may overshadow his grave, no 
costly statue in the State's metropolis or in the 
Nation's capital may perpetuate his name, but so 
long as these hills endure the world will not 
forget what he did here, and Gettysburg itself 
shall be Hancock's lasting monument. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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013 700 286 3i 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 700 286 3 #* 



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